Throughout the month of Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah, I will be sharing daily reflections to help each of us prepare for the upcoming High Holy Day Season. I hope these thoughts inspire each of us to make time, find the energy and initiate some passion as we reflect and examine this past year, in preparation for the year to come. And please, feel free to check out Makom NY: New Kind of Jewish Community, and if you don't have a place for the upcoming High Holy Day Season, please join us! You are welcome!

As every day passes, we so often focus on what is not right in our lives, what is missing from our days. Our Torah teaches us about blessings and curses at this time of year, and in essence, we so often focus on the curses, the challenges in life, the things we wish we could change or fix. Imagine for a moment if we could focus our energy on the blessings in life, for we each have so many blessings for which should be thankful, sometimes we just need to be reminded to smell the roses. Perhaps we should wake up in the morning and simply be appreciative of life, for being alive. For health and well-being, for eyes that open and ears that hear, for legs that walk and lungs that breathe, and even when one of these things is not working as it should, perhaps we should be grateful for that which does work, for it is a blessing. Perhaps we should look at our family and be appreciative for the people in our lives. We are often quick to speak of the challenges with family and friends, neighbors and colleagues, but instead we look at the people in our lives and count our blessings. For people who care enough to call when we are sick, to support us when we are down, who celebrate with us when necessary and who are simply there for us at all important and not so important times in our lives, perhaps we should be filled with gratitude, for that is a blessing. Perhaps we should better appreciate the homes we live in, the schools to which we send our children, the community in which we are privileged dwell. We so often dwell on what doesn’t work, how hard life is, and the challenges we face each day. For the roofs over our heads, for the food on our tables, for the education we receive for our children, for the good lives we are privileged to have, perhaps we should be appreciative, for those are so many blessings. During these upcoming High Holy Day services, as we share together in the liturgy, let us take to heart the brachot, the blessings we recite, thanking God for the gifts that are our bounty. And if this has been a difficult week, or month, or year, let us ask God to give us the strength to renew our blessings that once were. May this New Year allow us to be grateful for all we have, truly counting our blessings each and every day.Now let the sound of the shofar be heard;And let our souls be awakened!